Positive Health Online

Dr John Lee Replies to Letter from Janette Stroud (Issue 35, page 45)

In the letter concerning breast cancer, it is not at all clear what product the patient was using. Since she referred to it as "progesterone derived from wild yam" it is quite possible that she used one of the products with wild yam in it rather than the real progesterone. Nor do we know the dose. The normal physiologic dose is 15-20 mg/day from day 12 to day 26 of the monthly cycle. Many doctors make the mistake of thinking that, if a little is good, more is better. That is not the case. I have no experience in using high dose progesterone but it is likely that excessive dosing would cause down-regulation of progesterone receptors.

Further, it includes that statement that "It is necessary to avoid further hormonal imbalance." That is the whole point. Progesterone is supplemented when one has the hormone imbalance we call oestrogen dominance and progesterone deficiency. The addition of progesterone is to restore hormone balance.

The author of the letter is apparently unaware that the breast cancer found has been growing for more than eight years before it is likely to be found even by mammograms. Thus, if someone finds a breast cancer a month or so after starting progesterone cream, you can be sure that the progesterone cream had nothing to do with the creation or growth of the breast cancer. It is far more likely that the person has had oestrogen dominance for many years.

Breast pain after starting progesterone does occur rarely. The cause is due, in my opinion, to oestrogen's ability to cause intracellular oedema. The discomfort results from a temporary swelling (and not cell proliferation) of the breast cells due to the patient's oestrogen dominance and the return of oestrogen receptor sensitivity when progesterone is added to someone long deficient in it. The breast pain problem subsides within a month or two when proper lower doses of progesterone are given. It has nothing to do with the risk of breast cancer.

All studies of progesterone's effect on breast cells show no increased risk of breast cancer. Progesterone slows cell proliferation and protects against breast cancer by inhibition of the oncogene Bcl-2 and the activation of the protective gene, p53. Dr. Zava has examined breast tissue specimens of 3000 women with breast cancer and, in all cases, he found oestrogen dominance (high oestrogen levels and low progesterone levels) except in one case in which the woman had been born with a rare genetic error causing complete lack of progesterone receptors. In that case, the progesterone message could not be occurring due to the lack of progesterone receptors. Dr. Formby's work with breast cancer cell cultures has now been published. He showed (1) that oestradiol and oestrone (but not oestriol) promote breast cancer cell growth whereas progesterone inhibits its growth, and (2) that oestradiol and oestrone activate Bcl-2 production whereas progesterone inhibits Bcl-2 and activates the protector gene p53.

John Lee MD

Why are we experiencing an epidemic of glue ear?

I have discovered from working with a number of my patients that the "gluing up" process actually begins in the small intestine. And it all starts at three months when the first wave of vaccines is given to the child. They appear to impair the delicate function of the small intestine, whose job it is to pick up nutrients, and instead becomes completely smothered by the presence of the vaccinations. As the child is less able to absorb nutrients, so their immunity is lowered, and the onset of viruses set in.

Why is this? The meridian of the small intestine ends up in the ear. Under such bombardment from vaccinations, it sends out negative impulses similar to those generated by portable phones. In extreme cases, when the chest becomes affected too as in asthma, the common treatment is steroids. But this, in my experience only compounds the problem because the presence of steroids is the main reason why people can't absorb the element Einsteinium. The latter is known to control the absorption of Calcium Carbonate and Vitamin D, Pantothenic Acid and Pangamenic Acid – all key substances that prevent asthma, respiratory infections and increase the body's ability to carry oxygen in the blood to the lungs. I have found with many patients (including children) that when the problems are rectified, the symptoms disappear.

Jack Temple, Homeopathic Dowser/Healer
Pyrford Road, Pyrford, Woking, Surrey, GU22 8HQ

Re: January issue (36): "Baby with squint"

There are several avenues that I have found helpful in the past.

Certainly Educational Kinesiology has something to offer, in terms of maximising and clearing blocks to the neurological pathways through the use of Brain Gym and other exercises. In the advanced work we deal with specific eye muscles and their part in the seeing process.

From a chiropractic perspective there is anecdotal evidence to show the benefit of gentle manipulative treatment on vision and the function of the eye.

Obviously there is the work in Natural Vision Improvement but I have no experience of that with a young baby. Lastly I have also seen improvement with the use of acupuncture.

I am happy to talk with you if you want further information.

David Hubbard
McTimoney Chiropractor & Educational Kinesiology Practitioner and Trainer, Stroud Natural Therapies Centre, 7 Nelson Street, Stroud, Glos. GL5 2HL Tel. 01453-759444

Water Fluoridation: planned increase

I wonder if other Positive Health readers are concerned about government plans to increase the fluoridation of water supplies?

The chemicals used in water fluoridation (Hexafluorosilicic acid, Fluorosilicic acid and Hydrofluorosilicic acid, which are waste products from the scrubbers of the chimneys of the phosphate fertiliser industry) are 20 times more toxic than calcium fluoride which occurs naturally in many waters.

Fluoridation has many side effects, including suppressing the immune system and fluoride is a cumulative poison which can affect the nervous system. Too much can also cause ugly brown or white mottling of teeth known as fluorosis. For details send an SAE to:

National Pure Water Association,
12 Dennington Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield, WF4 3ET. Tel. 01924-254433.
C. Wells Ruislip, Middlesex.

Positive Healthcare Integration

This Trust is concerned with the holistic approach to health and we have been promoting the integration of healthcare for over ten years. It is therefore with considerable interest that we read of your new series and we enjoyed the excellent article by Dr David Peters in your issue 34 of November '98.

While he covered very comprehensively the importance of practitioners working together, of understanding each others disciplines, and the theory or concept from which the discipline arose, he said very little about what the customers want or need.

Some of your readers will know that this Trust has been running a freedom of choice in medicine campaign for over eleven years, closely listening to the receivers as well as the providers of health care. The tendency among conventional and, indeed, most non-conventional providers is to assess the need of the receiver themselves, usually, but not always, in the light of what the receiver says or implies. May I suggest that if the treatment is not effective the provider/receiver assessment is often to blame. It is therefore pertinent to discuss what the receiver requires, how the requirement can be met, and indeed whether it should be met at all.

The World Health Organisation's aim for 'health for all by the year 2000' sounds somewhat hollow now. Is this because the premise on which the slogan was based was not holistic enough to include the deeper understanding of health required to guide us to a higher level of health? Providers start off believing that everyone wants to be healthy, and find out that often this belief does not stand up in practice. I have seen 'healthy' people in wheelchairs and 'unhealthy' people playing rugby. Each of us has a slightly different view of what being healthy is; is it possible to find a common definition or at least a common thread?

Firstly, why do we want to be healthy? The answer varies enormously, but generally the answers can be collated to show that the underlying desire is to be happy and get on with living. The theme then diversifies with the addition of the reason for living; for the materialist, to evolve materially, for the spiritualist to evolve spiritually. Do the parameters of health care today take note of this underlying requirement? Conventional health care – not often, non-conventional health care – sometimes. We are left with the impression that it is the provider who decides who is healthy and what sort of health care the receiver should have. It is for consideration whether this situation impinges on the freedom of choice of the people.

If practitioners do not meet the receiver's requirement exactly the symptoms that remain or arrive are considered as side-effects of the treatment given. These side-effects can be mitigated or increased by the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual action of the receiver.

Of course, there can be a conflict between the overall aim of the provider and that of the receiver. This usually occurs when the habits and/or behaviour of the receiver appear to the provider to be antagonistic to helping the receiver to an optimum state of health.

To attempt to form conditions for optimum health it might be helpful to go up a level in the holistic manner and look at the requirement for humanity as a whole. At this level we find that movement is the dominant activity, the universe is expanding (evolving), and therefore to keep pace with this trend humanity should evolve. In terms of numbers humanity is certainly evolving, in technology the speed of evolution is escalating. In spiritual evolution the movement is erratic; the desire for freedom from the dogma of formed religions on the one hand is almost equalled by the desire for regimented fundamentalism. This latter trend does not eliminate the desire for spiritual growth, but possibly slows down the change to a rate which will not cause automatic reaction from society. This evolutionary activity occurs at social, political and national levels and in health care forms part of the health profile and our understanding of it.

If the aim of humanity is to evolve then it is likely that the aim of individuals should also be to evolve. What, however, is the aim of evolution?

As providers and receivers of health care we know that causes for physical dysfunction originate at emotional, mental or spiritual levels. The causes at the emotional level can be eradicated by mental effort, and those at the mental level by spiritual application. Therefore, it would seem that spiritual evolution should be the aim of each individual and of humanity as a whole in the search for health. Spiritual evolution gives much greater understanding of life as a whole, bestows great power and stimulates responsibility to act as a co-operating cell of humanity as a whole.

Is this reflected in the current discussions for integrated health care? At the recent conference on this subject at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in individual conversations, group studies and plenary sessions, it appeared that most of those present had not taken on board the concepts outlined above. It is appreciated that scientific and medical education takes little notice of the effects of the spiritual upon the physical, and the study of spiritual essence is markedly absent from most major disciplines, conventional or non-conventional, but the importance of spiritual understanding and spiritual evolution has so great an effect on the attainment and maintenance of physical health that any health care system which does not cover the effects of spiritual evolution must necessarily be incomplete.

This challenge to reach out for a more holistic approach to health must first be appreciated before it can be realised. The requirement is a fundamental change in our attitude to life, a fundamental change in the provider/receiver relationship, and a fundamental change in our attitude to the evolutionary aims of each individual and humanity as a whole. The impetus towards an integrated health care system in this country gives us an opportunity to revive our philosophical understanding of health and health care as we move forward into the next era of the evolution of Mankind. Not to do so would abrogate our responsibility to future generations.

If what I write is true, then the role of the health care practitioner is more than a palliative handing out of pills, more than the smoothing of pain and dysfunction; it means helping the receiver to an understanding of the meaning of illness and of the holistic approach to health. This entails study of the cause and effect in individual lives, integration of the levels of intervention – chemical, energetic, subtle energetic and, most of all, spiritual on a carrier wave of compassion and unconditional love.

Integration at the highest level will automatically facilitate integration at all other levels.

Gordon Smith
Chairman of Trustees, The Maperton Trust, Maperton, Wincanton, Somerset BA9 8EH. Tel: +44 (0)1963-32651 Fax: +44 (0)1963-32626
e-mail: radionics@cix.co.uk

Women: Why do they put up with abuse?: Sheldon Litt, Issue 36, January 1999

I am a counsellor working with Breathwork (Rebirthing) and Voice Dialogue (Sub-Personality) facilitation. I studied Addiction and Codependence for my degree at Lancaster University, and I have private practices in both Lancaster and Manchester. As a new reader of your excellent magazine, I have been impressed with the quality, depth and sheer usefulness of your articles. However, I was quite shocked and saddened by the article by Dr Sheldon Litt, Ph.D. on how he is unable to understand, and, from the examples he gave, unable to help his female clients who accept abusive relationships.

For many women (and men) this can be their re-creation of love as they perceived and understood it from their childhood experiences; the classic re-creation of their parents’ relationship with them or each other.[1] It can also be part of their attraction to a person who holds aspects they themselves have disowned, eg: an over responsible, hardworking, unable to relax person being attracted to a sloth, alcoholic or drop out etc.[2]

Also relevant is the fact that this type of relationship results in a lot of adrenaline being pumped into the system. When these women (or men) are out of the abusive and stressful relationships the system is no longer ‘over-excited’, and therefore adrenaline levels are reduced, revealing an underlying depression. This can, unconsciously, lead the sufferer back to the same or another abusive relationship in order to promote the needed ‘fix’ of adrenaline.[3]

Understanding the reasons is only a small part of the issue. When I see clients I do not need to understand why they put up with their situation. I see them as people with very low self esteem, often an exaggerated sense of responsibility with guilt and blame issues, who need to feel my respect for them and who need to be encouraged to love themselves enough to know they deserve better – a conclusion they have to come to themselves.

Any woman or man who actually makes the effort to see a counsellor or psychotherapist is acknowledging, at some level, that they need help. They deserve to be treated with respect and helped to understand themselves.

One final point, if any reader is suffering because of someone else’s drinking problem, there is a world-wide, self help organisation called Al-Anon (National Helpline No. 0171-403 0888) which has regional groups where women and men will find help and complete understanding.

References

1.    Bradshaw, Healing the Shame that Binds us. 1988
2.    Stone & Winkelman, Embracing Eachother. 1989
3.    Norwood, Women Who Love Too Much. 1984

Sheldon Litt replies…

In response to my article entitled ‘Women – why do they put up with abuse?’ (not my title, by the way, but chosen by the editor) from P.H., No. 36, January 1999.

The reader describes herself as a counsellor working with Breathwork (Rebirthing) and Voice Dialogue (Sub-Personality) facilitation. I can’t say that I know much about these disciplines, but then again there are probably over 400 different therapy modalities in use these days so there are few professionals acquainted with the entire field.

My article was highly disappointing to her because I showed from the examples that I was unable to help these clients who accept abusive relationships. Then she proceeds to give explanations for the underlying causes, citing several books in support. There are many different theories, and since verification is difficult to achieve in this field, I can neither support nor contradict her citations. However, I will take her word for it that she has had considerable success in helping clients with this particular problem, and in fact, in future I will be happy to refer to her for help in any such cases in Great Britain which come to my knowledge.

Sheldon Litt, Ph.D.